Assen: Foggy Racing preview

Foggy calls for podium challenge at Assen
Carl Fogarty is urging his Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Troy Corser and Chris Walker to carry on where they left off when the Superbike World Championship resumes after its mid-season break this ...

Foggy calls for podium challenge at Assen

Carl Fogarty is urging his Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders Troy Corser and Chris Walker to carry on where they left off when the Superbike World Championship resumes after its mid-season break this weekend.

Round nine of an enthralling series visits the fast and flowing Dutch circuit of Assen, where Foggy ruled supreme during his World Superbike reign. The four-times world champion won an incredible 12 of his 16 races there and is hoping that his team will be challenging for further honours in Sunday's two races after an encouraging display at the previous round of Brands Hatch, when Chris and Troy claimed fourth and fifth respectively.

Further developments to the engine of the PETRONAS FP1, tested successfully at Magny-Cours last week, are to be used at Assen and these cam train revisions are expected to allow the riders to increase peak revs to 14800 rpm, an increase of 1000 rpm, as well as increasing gearing options.

Carl said: "More of the same please! I guess, after Brands, we have got ourselves back up to where we want to be: challenging for the podium and consistently in a strong top six. So we want to try and carry that momentum through to the end of the year.

"Assen always feels like a third British round and there will hopefully be big support for us. Both Troy and Chris like the circuit and it should suit our bike pretty well as Troy went well there last year, even before the progress the PETRONAS engine development team have made. We tested more improvements in France last week and hopefully they will help with top end speed."

Troy, who has been on the podium seven times at Assen, said: "I'm looking forward to the race as the track is very flowing and well laid-out. I've had some good results there in the past and, although last year at Assen we were down on power, we've improved in that area now and so we should stand a good chance of being in the top six. It's a strange track in that there's a lot of drafting, so in a race situation you can just get pulled along with the pack which is good. I think Chris Vermeulen is going to be hard to beat."

Chris said: "Assen is quite a special track and it's a mega place to ride - it's designed for motorcycle riding, has some banked corners and loads of grip. The racing will be good as there are quite a few riders out there going strong at the moment and I think our bike will go well there. So many British fans also go over for it the atmosphere is usually great as well so hopefully it'll be another Brands Hatch for me!"

The Assen circuit is the longest in the calendar at 6.027km and is also one of the fastest, with top speeds of around 280kmh and an average speed of 180kmh. The slowest corner is the horseshoe leading onto the back straight - De Strubben - an 80kmh bend.